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South China Morning Post article on Smith letter to President Trump'US lawmakers urge Trump to press Xi on American detainees, exit bans''Legislators call Beijing the "world’s largest hostage-taker" that uses exit bans and detentions as "tools" for leverage'
By Bochen Han
Published October 24, 2025 at 12:54 AM A group of US Republican lawmakers is urging President Donald Trump to confront Chinese President Xi Jinping at an expected summit next week about Americans they view as unjustly detained or barred from leaving China, framing Beijing’s use of exit bans and detention as “tools” to gain leverage.
In a letter released on Thursday, three Republicans – Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Representatives Chris Smith of New Jersey and John Moolenaar of Michigan – highlighted the cases of two Americans, Dawn Michelle Hunt and Nelson Wells, who are imprisoned in China on drug trafficking charges, as well as exit bans imposed on a US Commerce Department employee and the US-citizen son of dissident Chinese artist Gao Zhen.
They also named cases of detained Chinese citizens with US-based relatives involved in human rights advocacy, including Gulshan Abbas, a retired Uygur doctor; Ezra Jin Mingri, a pastor of the unregistered Zion Church, taken by authorities earlier this month; and Ekpar Asat, a founder of a Uygur-language website.
The Communist Party “is the world’s largest hostage-taker. It uses detentions and exit bans to punish and censor Americans, gain leverage over US businesses, and pressure changes in US policy – disproportionately targeting Chinese-American and Uygur-American communities,” the lawmakers wrote. Sullivan and Smith are the respective chair and co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which advises Congress and the US president on human rights and the rule of law in China. Moolenaar is the chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Trump is expected to meet Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea next Thursday local time, as part of a stabilising effort after a recent escalation in tensions.
Relations between the US and China hit new lows in recent weeks after Beijing threatened to tighten its grip on strategic rare earth minerals, and Washington warned of heightened tariffs and expanded controls on critical software. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his counterpart, Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng, are scheduled to meet in Malaysia later this week to lay the groundwork for the leaders’ talks.
But as planning progresses, Washington’s China hawks worry that Trump may be willing to concede too much in exchange for a deal on Chinese purchases of US agricultural goods – an issue key to his rural political base. “We’re prepared to … provide almost any capability to China, and they will ask for that,” said a former senior government official. International human rights groups have long criticised Beijing for its treatment of minority groups in China as well as its use of exit bans and detentions on American citizens and their relatives. Pressure on China ahead of major events has sometimes seen results. In 2000, post-arrest publicity helped to release Dickinson College librarian Song Yongyi, a US permanent resident, when Beijing needed US Congressional approval to join the World Trade Organization.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Thursday’s letter. Beijing has maintained that the imprisonment and travel restrictions imposed on Americans are legitimate. Chinese law, for instance, allows foreign nationals to be barred from leaving China if they are involved in unsettled civil cases or under criminal investigation or trial. Meanwhile, the families of those detained say their loved ones had been denied due process. Wells’ family, for instance, said he didn’t receive a fair trial or adequate representation. Last November, the US National Security Council said that it considered “all of the wrongfully detained Americans in the [People’s Republic of China]” home after Washington reached a deal with Beijing to release three Americans.
But the Dui Hua Foundation, a US-based non-profit organisation, said at the time that there were over 200 Americans “under coercive measures” in China – a situation it says continues as of this month. Earlier this year, Wells Fargo executive Mao Chenyue was allowed to leave China after being put under an exit ban, following pressure from Washington.
China’s Foreign Ministry said in July she had been prevented from leaving because she had been required to assist with a criminal investigation. Other US lawmakers have also voiced concern over China’s human rights record in recent days. On Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution denouncing Beijing’s alleged transnational repression in the US. Separately, Senator Ted Cruz is leading a push for a Senate resolution condemning “the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Christians”, following the arrests this month of members of the Zion Church in China. |
